News | 10. Jan. 2022

Online lecture: Hartmann Schedel’s World Chronicle – from the printing press to the digital edition

Parallel to our well-received series „Lectures in the History of Medieval Research“, the MGH have launched a second lecture series on medieval source research entitled: „Back to the Sources“. In the present pandemic situation, the lectures will be held in accordance with currently valid hygiene regulations. The new series will open with Dr Bernd Posselt presenting his edition of Hartmann Schedel’s World Chronicle (or „Nuremberg Chronicle“) in a zoom conference on Thursday, 10 February 2022, at 6 p.m.


Thanks to its many illustrations, the World Chronicle written by the Nuremberg town physician Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514) in 1493 is one of the most famous books - perhaps even the most commonly well-known book – to have been published in the early age of the printing press. Schedel’s chronicle combines the traditional medieval periodization and chronological structure according to the reigns of kings and popes with a new chorographic perspective and woodcut illustrations to form a unique historiographical work.


The text that Schedel compiled for his chronicle is highly dependent on the material he used, for the largest part Italian sources. The MGH are currently preparing a digital edition of the Latin version of his World Chronicle. This will be a premiere for us as both the first major MGH edition based on a printed text, not on manuscript transmission, and, properly speaking, as our first „born digital“ edition, i.e. completely structured according to the principles of digital editing practice.


The lecturer, Bernd Posselt, studied classical philology and German studies in Munich and Venice and worked at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich from 2008 to 2015 in various projects including the digital edition of the Glosses to Martianus Capella and the edition of the works of Bernhard of Waging. He completed his PhD 2013 in Munich with a doctoral thesis on Hartmann Schedel’s World Chronicle. Dr Posselt has been a member of staff at the MGH since 2014. Besides editing the Nuremberg Chronicle, he is engaged in our digital humanities team.


The lecture will be held on the online platform ZOOM on February 10 2022, beginning at 6 p.m. After registration, we will supply you with further information and the login password ca. three days prior to the presentation. To participate, please register via email to annette.marquard-mois@mgh.de.
The lecture is the first in the new MGH series „Back to the Sources“.